Yester-Heroes: Nashua Fire Department – The Early Days
read more…: Yester-Heroes: Nashua Fire Department – The Early Dayssome tidbits of information focusing on the early days of Nashua’s fire department.
Columnist: Gary Ledoux
Posts by Gary Ledoux
Yester-Heroes: A job of many hats
read more…: Yester-Heroes: A job of many hatsThe city charter gave the mayor and aldermen full and exclusive power to appoint a city marshal and assistants, constables, and all other police officers. As first organized, the city had police officers, constables and watchmen. All had the power to arrest. Constables had additional powers to serve civil processes and to collect taxes. It was not unusual for one man to serve in all three positions. None of them was a full-time job, and appointments were often politically driven.
Yester-Heroes: The Crown Hill Conflagration
read more…: Yester-Heroes: The Crown Hill ConflagrationThe Nashua Telegraph of the previous day predicted fair and cooler weather for Sunday. A fire started on one of the lower wooden timbers of a railroad bridge over the Nashua River near Temple Street. It is unknown what started the fire. It might have been sparks from a passing train. It might have come from a group of young men who were known to congregate in the area to while away the time with games of chance and cigarette smoking.
Craig Michaud: Collector of everything and steward of Nashua memories
read more…: Craig Michaud: Collector of everything and steward of Nashua memoriesCollecting, for Michaud, was almost a passive pastime until 2017 – when “thunder” struck. He attended the estate sale for Mr. Frank Mooney, a long-time Nashua mail carrier, member of the Nashua Historical Society, and owner of what was then one of the largest collections of Nashua memorabilia ever.
Yester-Heroes: Midnight Marauders and the Night Watch
read more…: Yester-Heroes: Midnight Marauders and the Night WatchOn November 8, 1828, the town voted to purchase a farm and on November 24th appointed a committee of five to look at area farms and select one and “run the town into debt for it” if need be. On March 10, 1829, the committee unanimously chose the Benjamin Cutler Farm and purchased it for $2,649.14. For years, this facility would be the poor farm and house of correction for the town. Persons could be (and were) committed to the House of Corrections for up to six months of hard labor. Today, this property is known as … the Nashua Country Club.
Yester-Heroes: The Nashua Fire Department is Born
read more…: Yester-Heroes: The Nashua Fire Department is BornOn February 1, 1834, the first mention of a local fire department and its equipment appeared in the Nashua Telegraph: “…the village raised money by subscription to purchase a suction engine (a hand tub) and sufficient lengths of hose.” This would become Lafayette Engine No. 3, the first apparatus under the auspices of the city. The first two hand pumpers were actually purchased by and belonged to the mills. On June 30, 1835, the new fire engine (hand tub) known as the Lafayette Engine No. 3 arrived in the city.
Yester-Heroes: Nashua’s First ‘Conservator of the Peace’
read more…: Yester-Heroes: Nashua’s First ‘Conservator of the Peace’Policing in America has changed dramatically over the years. Very briefly, in Puritan 17th-century New England, neighbors were encouraged to watch each other’s behavior and report deviance to the magistrate. There was no boundary between crime and sin. A codified separation between church and state would come later.
Yester-Heroes: Stories from the History of Nashua’s Police and Fire-Rescue Departments
read more…: Yester-Heroes: Stories from the History of Nashua’s Police and Fire-Rescue DepartmentsIn 1824, Nashua’s earliest piece of firefighting equipment was purchased by the Nashua Manufacturing Company. It was known as a hand tub and was named the T.W. Gillis in honor of a Nashua Manufacturing Company executive. (Gillis would later serve as Nashua’s third mayor in 1857.)